Come In From the Rain
by SabaceanBabe
Summary: Umbrellas and toy boats and Snickers, oh my!


Title: Come In From the Rain

Author: SabaceanBabe

Rating: PG-13

Word count: 1,340

Characters/pairings: Derek/Sarah

Spoilers: not so much

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_I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains. One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge, but one misses a world of loveliness. --_Adeline Knapp

--

As Sarah pulled the Jeep into the driveway, it began to rain, and while rain wasn't the norm for southern California this time of year, neither was it unheard of. Either way, it was long overdue; things had been dusty and dry for weeks and the scent of moisture in the air was welcome.

Sarah shut off the engine and swung her door open, running to the porch in an effort to not get completely soaked. It wasn't until she had unlocked and opened the front door, and listened for any sounds that might be _wrong_ within, that she realized Derek was still in the Jeep. Frowning, she reached around the doorway for the shotgun they kept in the umbrella stand by the door, looking over her shoulder at the Jeep for signs of trouble.

Derek still sat in the passenger seat, looking out at the rain. There was no indication that there was a problem of any kind. _What the hell is he doing?_

She let go of the shotgun and reached for an umbrella instead, ready to rescue the idiot from drowning, amused by the passing thought of a Derek Reese too sweet to not melt in the rain. Opening the umbrella, she turned back to the driveway, unprepared for the sight of Derek now standing in that rain, arms resting one on the door and the other on the Jeep's roof, his face raised and a look of almost contentment relaxing his features. For the first time, Sarah saw more than simply a passing familial resemblance to Kyle, and it took her breath away.

Irritated with herself for her own traitorous thoughts, she gave herself a mental shake and jogged down the steps, her stride purposeful. Derek Reese was a violent man, hard and harsh and, she sometimes suspected, not entirely sane. He was nothing like his brother. Nothing.

"Come inside, Reese, you're getting soaked." Her tone was harsher than she meant it to be. She lifted the umbrella higher, pushing it toward him to offer its shelter, but he simply backed away and slammed the door shut, laughing.

"Come play with me, Sarah." Still laughing, he held out a hand to her, but now there was a challenge in his eyes, as if he knew what she'd been thinking. She shivered and told herself that it was just the rain.

"Don't be ridiculous. We're not children." Children. Had she ever seen John play in the rain? Throw his head back and laugh, catching drops on his tongue? Had she ever let her son be a child? Had they ever had the luxury? Her grip tightened on the umbrella's curved handle.

He watched her, but allowed his hand to drop to his side. "What are you afraid of, Sarah?"

She'd lived with the knowledge of what the future would bring – _might_ bring, for they'd already changed that future – for so long now… So what _was_ she afraid of? The question, especially coming from him, made her uncomfortable, and it wasn't something that she was ready to think about just then. She turned her back on the question, on him. "Fine. Go right ahead and catch pneumonia." She stalked back to the house, the grass squishing beneath her feet.

Her hand was on the doorknob when his voice stopped her. He'd followed her, stood dripping on her porch, his t-shirt plastered to his chest and shoulders. That challenge in his eyes, his voice, was gone, replaced by something she couldn't immediately identify. "I haven't felt clean rain in sixteen years." It was almost as though he asked permission to be allowed to stay out in the rain, to pretend that everything was right in the world, that it wasn't the tense, threatening place they both knew it to be, the terrifying place that it was to one day become.

Again, he held out his hand to her, this violent man, and invited her to be a child with him, if only for the few minutes that his "clean" rain fell. Before she could change her mind, she rested the umbrella on the porch to drip dry and put her hand in his, allowing him to pull her back down to the lawn, to draw her out into the rain.

The street was deserted, everyone but the two of them either at work or at school. It was quiet, no sound but that of the rain falling steadily from a leaden sky. They stood in the middle of the front yard and let it wash over them.

"The last time I felt rain like this…"

When he didn't continue, Sarah pushed her sopping hair back behind her ears, out of her eyes, and looked at him. Derek's smile was bemused, nothing of the sardonic or ironic about it; it was an expression that Sarah was completely unfamiliar with when it came to Kyle's brother. "The last time?" she prodded.

He looked toward her, still with a half-smile, but he was a million miles away… or a lifetime. "It was just a few days before everything changed." He looked away from her again, out toward the horizon, and his smile faded. "Mom and Dad were out… doing something, I don't know. They left me to watch Kyle."

Derek took a step away from her, turned around, looked up at the porch. Sarah watched, mystified, but apparently he spotted whatever it was he was looking for; he jogged up the yard and took the steps in one long stride. She stayed where she was, not wanting to disturb whatever was going through his mind. She wanted to know more of the Reese Boys before the machines.

When he returned to her, he carried the rubber mat from the front door and silently dared her to say something to him about it. He shrugged when she didn't and continued past her, stopping at the curb. Grinning, he dropped the mat over the storm drain and water immediately began to pool.

Unable to contain her curiosity, she joined him at the curb where a small lake had already formed and which promised to turn at least this portion of the street into an inland sea. "What are you doing?" she asked, still mystified.

"The street we lived on was a lot like this one. And Kyle loved toy boats almost as much as he loved throwing a baseball." Derek crouched and reached for a stick, just before the ever-expanding lake engulfed it. Straightening, he pulled a Snickers bar from the pocket of his jeans and carefully tore open the wrapper before taking a large bite.

Sarah stared. "You had a candy bar in your pocket?"

"Yeah. So?" She mouthed a _why_ at him and he gave her a smirk, swallowed, and then parroted the product mantra at her. "Snickers handles your hunger so you can handle _anything_."

She stifled a laugh. "Isn't it… melted?"

He took another bite, his eyes never leaving hers. "It's a little soft, maybe. So?" He held it out to her. "Bite?" She blinked water from her eyes and shook her head. He popped the rest of it into his mouth before sucking watery chocolate from each finger, one by one. Sarah rolled her eyes but continued to watch as he wove the stick through the wrapper. He stepped off the curb and knelt to launch the tiny boat he'd made, complete with a canopy that kept it from being immediately capsized and sunk by the still-steady rain. Derek watched the tiny boat drift; Sarah watched Derek.

"That was the last time you had the chance to be a child, wasn't it?"

Another shrug, but now there was a stiffness in his shoulders that hadn't been there before. She took a step toward him, wanting to say or do something to take that tension away again, but her cell phone rang. She tried to ignore it. "Derek," she began.

"You'd better answer that," he said, "it might be John." And the moment was lost, washed away by the rain.


End file.
